You can start Anytime.
Dear MONDAY,
Good Morning Friends!
Wow! To say, “it’s been a while,” is an understatement. My poor little blog has been sitting here,waiting for me to pay attention to her. I’m not going to beat myself up about it though, because, when I really think about it, I was pretty busy writing my book, so it’s not like I’ve not been creating.
I’ve been feeling a bit disconnected from social media for the last few months. Although I know it’s part of my job, lately, it feels trivial for me to be there. I love connecting with my people, and I still very much want to connect, but I’ve always enjoyed a more intimate connection with my tribe. Back in 2009, when I started Organic Mexican Girl, I blogged every day! It was great fun to just write about fun topics without any pressure from the powers that be. It was just me on my work computer, blogging away about turning my abuelita’s Mexican recipes into vegan delights.
Once that blog began to pick up steam, which meant that advertisers came knocking, I quickly shut it down. I told my readers that I didn’t want any sponsors to dilute what I was trying to do. But the truth was, I was scared. I had never created anything before, and I was worried about the added pressure of being beholden to someone else’s expectations.
I think about that time a lot nowadays, over a decade later, after my first book has been published, after seven years of podcasting. I’ve felt the desire to return to writing, and upon some self-inquiry, I decided that NOW IS THAT TIME.
It’s also the holiday season. My work for the month is done and I feel the space to sit at my computer and be creative.
Lately, I’ve been aware of how easy it is for me to fall into familiar routines of what I ‘had’ to do. Since the book was published, it’s been one thing onto the next. Sometimes, when we get caught up in all those ‘to-do’s,’ we get so energetically depleted that we completely stifle our creativity. Believe me, I’m not complaining. I’m absolutely, 100% unequivocally grateful.
A few months back, I was sitting at my computer when I got an email from one of my listeners’ asking if I would ever return to blogging. She was thinking of starting a blog and was wondering if it was a “lost art.” We penpalled back and forth for a week and concluded that it’s never too late to start. So, she did!
This conversation reminded me how much I missed being able to talk directly to my community in this way. Not in a newsletter, not on a short caption or 280 characters, but authentically, sharing my heart’s truth. To be fully honest about how I am navigating life. Blogging has always been that for me. It’s been the forum where I’ve always felt safe enough to share my truth and words. More than teaching in a studio, or speaking on a stage or recording a podcast in a booth; writing has always been my favorite medium.
So what stops us from doing the things that feed our soul? I think sometimes we mistake achieving for doing. Achieving has more to do with completing something, like a goal, or reaching and endpoint. Doing, is about the action itself. It’s about the actual doing of something. It’s about sitting down to write if you want to write, or recording a podcast if you want to start a podcast. Achieving sometimes renders circumstances we can’t control, for example, if you have to caretake someone, if you are trying to start a side-hustle but have a full time job… that kind of thing. Doing, does not.
The only reason I’ve ever finished anything in my life, is because I’ve focused on the doing component. My actions, decisions and behaviors have all resulted from a desire to create. Then, it was about just doing what I needed to do. I made the doing the endgoal, end so to speak. Ie. I want to write a book, where do I even fucking start? This is how I started, and I still do this to this date:
Wake up early, Meditate, Drink your Matcha.
Write 500 words (even if you don’t use any of it and none of it is grammatically correct or makes sense
Celebrate that you completed your ‘Doing’.
Of course, there are more steps, but that’s where we get all tripped up. Don’t worry about all the steps, just take it one step at a time.
Before publishing this, I debated waiting to start fresh in the new year. I began making plans on how often I would post, and how I could strategize etc. I’m not waiting until next year because… well… I don’t have to. I don’t have to wait until it’s the right time. For most of us, that right time might never show up, and there you’ll be, waiting on the side of the road for some elusive thing to show up. Someone once asked me, “How did you find the time to write your book?” and I answered as honestly and accurately as I could, “I just found it. I woke up earlier and went to bed later than normal. i worked in small 20 min writing sessions, I put pen to paper to write when I felt inspired, just one.word.at.a.time”
Well, that’s all for today. I’ll be back on Wednesday sharing an entry from my journal.
See you all soon!
Love, Rosie